Do you work at Qualcomm?
Get expert insights from financial advisors who specialize in helping Qualcomm employees and executives make the most of their compensation package and benefits.
Looking for a financial advisor who specializes in working with Qualcomm employees? You’re in the right place. Below, you’ll find advisors who understand Qualcomm benefits and compensation — along with their answers to common financial questions from Qualcomm employees and executives.
Whether you recently joined Qualcomm or you’ve advanced into a management or executive leadership role over a multi-year career, making smart decisions about your income and Qualcomm benefits can have a lasting impact on your financial future. For example:
✅ Do you know the right moves to get the greatest value from the Qualcomm benefits available to you?
✅ If you’re thinking about leaving Qualcomm for another job or planning to retire in a few years, are you taking the right steps today to receive all the compensation and benefits you’ve earned?
Key Takeaways
Qualcomm’s 401(k) BrokerageLink Option Is Widely Overlooked
The self-directed BrokerageLink window lets employees invest beyond the roughly 20 choices in the core 401(k) menu. The advisor below finds it often opens lower-cost alternatives with better risk-adjusted performance when used with care.
Lending Strategies Can Help Qualcomm Employees with Illiquid Wealth
Concentrated stock, options, RSUs, and real estate can take time to vest or sell and can trigger large tax bills. Strategic borrowing can lower the cost of liabilities and help defer taxes to a more opportune time.
Model Taxes Three to Five Years Ahead, Especially on Large 401(k) Balances
Years of tax-deferred saving and strong markets have left many Qualcomm employees with sizable 401(k) balances that will be taxed later. Multi-year tax modeling uncovers savings that a look back at last year’s return will miss, and mistakes in the distribution phase are harder to undo.
Why Qualcomm Employees Work with a Specialist Financial Advisor
Throughout the year, Qualcomm provides its employees and executives with updates about their benefits, ranging from health insurance and health savings accounts to retirement plans like a 401(k) with a self-directed brokerage option — along with equity compensation such as restricted stock units and an employee stock purchase plan. While the company offers many useful resources and access to knowledgeable staff who can assist with questions, you’ll also find financial professionals not affiliated with Qualcomm who specialize in helping Qualcomm employees make the most of their income and benefits.
Qualcomm is headquartered in San Diego, California, where most of its U.S. employees work, and its other major U.S. sites include Santa Clara, California; Austin, Texas; Raleigh, North Carolina; and Bridgewater, New Jersey. Whether you work at one of those sites, another office, or remotely from home, you may have questions about your compensation package and benefits better suited for a financial professional who can offer unbiased advice and guidance.
Sensitive topics — like the steps you should take before quitting your job at Qualcomm to work elsewhere, protecting yourself in advance of a corporate layoff, or deciding when you should plan to retire — are all conversations that may be more comfortable with a trusted financial advisor.
Should You Hire a Qualcomm Specialist or a Local Financial Advisor?
You’ll likely find dozens of nearby financial advisors well-suited to help you reach your money goals with a personalized plan. But it can be harder to find a financial advisor who specializes in serving Qualcomm employees. Fortunately, many financial advisors offer virtual services, so you can meet online no matter where you (or they) live — which means you can hire a specialist financial advisor who lives hundreds of miles away if their knowledge and experience working with Qualcomm employees is the better fit for your unique needs.
💡 In the Q&A below, you’ll gain insights from financial advisors who work with Qualcomm employees to help them make smart decisions, get the most value from their compensation and benefits, reduce their money stress, and prepare for a comfortable retirement.
🙋♀️ Have a question not yet answered? Use the form below to submit your question. You can also contact financial advisors directly to set up an introductory call or contact them with your questions.
Q&A: Financial Planning Tips for Qualcomm Employees & Executives
In this section, you’ll learn how you can make the most of your Qualcomm employee benefits and gain valuable tips from financial advisors who specialize in working with Qualcomm employees and executives.
Financial Advisor Q&A · Qualcomm Employees
Tim Dyer
Dyer Wealth Management · San Diego, CA · Serves clients nationwide
Join my inner circle of knowledge designed to protect and grow your wealthTim Dyer is a financial advisor based in San Diego who specializes in offering financial planning services to Qualcomm employees. Tim helps his clients get the most value from their Qualcomm benefits and compensation package so they can enjoy life and feel confident about their financial future.
QAs a financial advisor with experience helping Qualcomm employees save for their retirement, how do you help them make the most of their employee benefits?
Step number one is for Qualcomm employees to fully understand their existing benefits, including those they may not know are available to them. The next step is to look at how those benefits work in tandem with their personal assets.
Achieving financial clarity of goals and comfort pertaining to their options ultimately gives employees the confidence to know they are headed in the right direction.
QWhen you first speak with a Qualcomm employee, what questions do you like to ask to better understand their unique circumstances and determine how you can best help them achieve their goals?
The initial questions I ask Qualcomm employees are centered around each client’s vision values and goals, and not a lot of focus on numbers. Everyone has a unique vision of their ideal future. When the vision is clear the decisions are easy.
QIs there a particular benefit available to Qualcomm employees you feel isn’t as well utilized or understood by employees as it should be?
By far the number one benefit that is being underutilized and even overlooked altogether by Qualcomm employees is the Brokeragelink option in the Qualcomm 401k plan. This is known as the “self-directed” option where you can buy any investment normally available in a brokerage account. You are not limited to the 20 or so choices in the current “core” plan.
Sometimes more opportunities can bring more complexity. This is where working with a financial advisor can really help identify options. These options include lower fees and expenses which ultimately puts more money in your pocket. Also screenings for investments that help you reduce risk or potentially increase return.
I can’t think of one scenario where I have reviewed a client’s portfolio and not found a similar if not better alternative for lower cost and in many cases better risk-adjusted performance.
QBeyond Qualcomm employee benefits for retirement savings, are there other types of benefits offered by the company that you find valuable to discuss with your clients?
Lending and liability management are benefits that really come to mind. Historically we have seen many Qualcomm employees who have large, yet illiquid or semi-illiquid assets. Real estate, concentrated stock positions, stock options, RSUS, etc. They may take time to vest or sell, and also generate a large unwanted tax bill.
There is a large opportunity to take advantage of lending opportunities so that clients can reduce their cost of liabilities, and maybe more importantly, defer the tax liability to a more opportune time.
QFor Qualcomm employees who have managed their finances on their own to this point, what would you suggest they consider to help them decide if they should begin working with a financial advisor at this stage in their lives?
The path to successful accumulation of wealth to meet long-term goals may be intuitive for some Qualcomm employees. Saving in a 401k, funding education accounts, and using low-cost index fund investments is not rocket science and most are automated. Add in the fact that the stock market has been almost straight up, until 2022, since the financial collapse in 2008.
Many people are good at accumulation, but when it comes to distribution it is an entirely different skillset AND mindset. During the accumulation phase, there are many scenarios where a mistake can be remedied easily. In the retirement or distribution phase, not so much. Many mistakes in retirement are not only costly but completely irreversible.
QWhat are some of the unique financial planning challenges you commonly see among your clients who are Qualcomm employees and how do you help them overcome these obstacles?
Too often employees at firms like Qualcomm are of the mindset that making as much money as possible is the safest option financially. And they have not taken the time to actually quantify what they actually want out of life. Having a lot of money when you work yourself to death in a cubicle typically isn’t everyone’s dream outcome.
One of the things I deeply love about serving clients on these issues is when you show them what is possible for them and the light goes off. They have the “aha moment” where they can clearly see the point when work becomes optional.
QWhat questions do you recommend Qualcomm employees ask financial advisors they’re considering hiring to help them decide if they’re a good fit?
First off, Qualcomm employees should confirm that the advisor is a licensed fiduciary and not a salesperson for a Wall Street bank or brokerage firm. Additionally, do they work with clients that have similar needs and concerns? What are the fees associated with working together and what is the value that is received for that fee?
QIs there anything that comes up frequently in your initial meeting with Qualcomm employees that surprises you?
The diversity is always fascinating. Many of the people I meet who work at Qualcomm are from different backgrounds and experiences. Many are originally from another country like India, which is something I have learned a lot about over the last 2 decades including multiple trips there (including one to set a Guinness World Record).
QFor highly compensated Qualcomm employees and executives, are there any special benefits you believe it’s important to take into consideration when preparing their financial plan?
Taxes. Although a lot of Qualcomm employees are W2 the majority of the tax opportunities exist after they receive their benefits and salary. Too often employees just look at the past year as a saving tax opportunity when doing tax preparation. Being able to model out 3-5 years of financials can identify many opportunities for tax savings.
QIs there a particularly memorable experience or a moment you recall with a client who worked at Qualcomm when you realized they have unique opportunities and circumstances when it comes to their financial planning needs?
Maybe not one specifically, but a series of trends I’ve observed over the last 20 years while working with Qualcomm employees. As the 401k became the primary savings vehicle for retirement for many employees, the tax deferral has been good. Couple that with the historical bull market over the last 10 or even 20 years, for many, their account balances have become very significant. The 401k is a tax-deferred option, which basically means taxed later. Well later is coming up.
Taxes are at historical lows. That is scheduled to change at the end of 2025 when the Tax Cuts Jobs Act sunsets. This will put the current lower taxes rates back to those in 2016. The amount of tax liability for many in the coming years will be extremely costly and needs to be managed. Luckily there are some options.
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About the Author
Brian Thorp
Founder & CEO, Wealthtender · Editor-in-Chief
Brian Thorp is the founder and CEO of Wealthtender and serves as Editor-in-Chief. With over 25 years in the financial services industry — including nearly 22 years at Invesco, where he led strategic partnerships with wealth management firms representing more than $100 billion in assets — Brian founded Wealthtender to help people find financial advisors they can trust and make more informed money decisions.
A member of the National Society of Compliance Professionals and its SEC Marketing Rule Working Group, Brian was recognized by WealthManagement.com as one of its “Ten to Watch in 2024” for his work reshaping how financial advisors market their services. He holds a B.B.A. in Finance from The University of Texas at Austin.
Brian and his wife live in Austin, Texas.